From Behind the Scenes

Every now and then, when the pipeline of news runs dry at work for a few minutes here and there, I get up from my desk and take some pictures of the goings-on inside the place I call the Mothership.

My job entails work as a web editor, which not only involves posting stories, but also moderating the stations’ (there are two of them in the building, KY3 and KSPR) Facebook and Twitter accounts, among other things.

By the time I get to the station at 6 a.m., both morning shows — KY3 Ozarks Today and KSPR News This Morning — have been rolling along for an hour each on their respective stations. But for a guy whose brain is perpetually on West Coast time, some caffeinated tea is necessary.

HyVee English Breakfast Tea + sugar = an awakened Chris for at least an hour.

I’ll walk the hallways after I’m done putting tea in my sugar and say hello to the folks in master control and in the room they call PC1, the nerve center for the newscast. The producers, directors, audio folks and Chyron operators all help the show roll right along — and they do a pretty durn good job of doing so.

The KY3 newsroom is generally empty, save for a producer or two. Dustin Hodges, the morning reporter, was live all morning in front of a health center for his story — and producer Brett was editing some video, so I was able to snap a tranquil moment a couple hours before the newsroom began brimming with activity.

After I say a quick hello to everyone, I wait for a commercial break to talk to our anchors Paul and Maria, generally to see what they need put on the website. In addition to stories, I’ll put an interview or a segment that is produced specifically for the show on the KY3 website in the first hour of the show. On this occasion, I was a bit late so I had to wait until the weather segment finished up. I caught them waiting as well.

One last parting shot before it’s time to head back to my desk. Before too long, I will have posted a few local stories and some wire copy to our websites, clipped a video or two and deleted a few crass Facebook comments from users commenting on a controversial story. A day in the life, indeed.

Kitteh really didn’t want to be on TV this morning at KY3 despite winning a year of Science Diet food.

During a live in-studio segment on KY3 daily morning show Ozarks Today, a local veterinarian was announcing the winner of a competition in which overweight pets squared off against each other to lose the most weight. I don’t think this fat cat took too kindly to finding out he still weighed 20 pounds after it was announced that he won the competition.

Suffice to say everyone was flummoxed for a short time afterward. Props to whomever was operating the camera at the time this shot came over the tube: